educational attainment

Californians who are Asian Indian or Taiwanese are among the most highly educated in the state, recently released census data shows.

Among both groups, about 7 out of 10 people ages 25 and older hold at least a bachelor's degree. On average, 3 out of 10 Californians have earned a bachelor's degree or higher.

The findings come from the 2006-2010 American Community Survey, which includes detailed estimates of social, economic and housing characteristics for 392 racial, tribal, Hispanic origin and ancestry groups. The five-year survey is the first time since the 2000 Census that such statistical detail has been available for the groups.

The data reveals significant disparities between racial and ethnic groups that often are lumped together.

For example, when counted as a whole, 48.5 percent of Asians in California hold at least a bachelor's degree. That number masks that 11.5 percent of Laotians but nearly 53 percent of Pakistanis have bachelor's degrees.

"Asians aren't all monolithic in terms of opportunities to higher education," said Joanna Lee, a senior research analyst at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center's Demographic Research Project.

Lee and her colleagues are working on an analysis of University of California and California State University data. Their initial findings show that "there's differences within Asian Americans as to who is actually enrolling and who is actually being admitted" that aren't apparent when Asian Americans are viewed as a whole, she said.

The National Archives released for the first time yesterday individual records from the 1940 Census – unleashing an online treasure trove of 3.8 million pages eagerly awaited by genealogists and researchers.

The country has changed substantially in 72 years: Its population has ballooned to nearly 309 million from 132 million. Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states. California's entire population, 6.9 million, was less than Los Angeles County's today.

California's population in 2010, more than 37 million, was the nation's largest. In 1940, it was the nation's fifth-largest, trailing New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio. But California led the nation in other ways, including educational attainment.

While just 24.5 percent of Americans had earned at least a high school diploma in 1940, more than 37 percent of Californians had – the highest rate in the country. It also had the highest rate of college graduates among states, 6.8 percent, and was bested only by Washington, D.C.'s 11.1 percent. 

In 2010, 80.7 percent of Californians were high school graduates and 30.1 percent held at least a bachelor's degree. While higher than in 1940, those rates are no longer the nation's highest: 85.6 percent of Americans now have at least high school diplomas, and 28.2 percent are college graduates. Wyoming has the nation's highest rate of high school graduates, 92.3 percent, and Massachusetts has the highest rate of college graduates, 39 percent.

What else has changed in California since 1940? Here are more facts about the Golden State, then and now, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau: